this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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SBC Gaming

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SBC Gaming is for Single Board Computer aimed to play video-games, also called Retro Handhelds

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How the heck do people play on such tiny screens? (self.sbcgaming)
submitted 2 years ago by tomkatt to c/[email protected]
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I’ve got a Powkiddy X55 and I’m really enjoying it, but for some games I find even its 5.5” screen to be fairly small for the task, particularly when looking at games from the 32-bit era and up.

How on earth are people actually managing to play these games on 3.5” and 2.8” displays? I feel like it would be really cramped for screen real estate or you’d basically be holding the device in front of your nose just to play it.

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[–] BitingChaos 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Want to see cramped?

Start up a Nintendo DS game on the RG35XX and then open its configuration.

Imagine its small 3.5" display, but cut equally into 4 tinier squares. The settings screen for the DS emulator is squeezed into 1/4 of the screen at the bottom left, and it uses a tiny font meant for a full screen display.

I had to take off my glasses and hold the RG35XX about 3 inches from my face to see any of the text.

[–] tomkatt 1 points 2 years ago

Yikes, that sounds terrible.

I actually really liked handhelds back in the day and still do. I had the original Game Boy, eventually the GB Pocket and GBA, and the Nintendo DS Lite was one of my favorite devices of all time.

But now though? I can’t fathom something smaller than the 2DS XL and even with the Powkiddy x55 there’s games I’m like… this is gray but let me move this over to my tablet.

I feel like 7-8” display is the sweet spot for me, but finding a reasonably powerful device in that form factor is just a no-go unless I want to spring for the Steam Deck. Tablets in that size tend to be trash.